Small birds may be mounted in fluttering attitudes by pinning the wings with a bunch of cotton beneath them, but if an attitude with wings fully spread is called for they must be treated in a manner similar to the legs, inserting the wire under the skin near the tip of the wing and running it along the under side of the wing bones to the body through which it is thrust and clinched as the leg wires were.
Birds mounted with spread wings cannot be so readily wound to smooth the plumage and require to be braced with strips of stiff paper and sometimes extra wires, which are removed when dry.
CHAPTER X.
MOUNTING LARGE BIRDS.
The same principles employed in the manipulation of smaller species apply to this class with but a few variations. On account of their size and weight the artificial bodies need to be especially firm in order to afford a secure anchorage for the wing and leg wires. Also these supports should be fastened to the bones in several places with stout cord or small wire, as wrapping with the tow and thread used on small birds is hardly sufficient.
What I would class as being large birds are the larger hawks, owls, herons, eagles, geese, etc. The several varieties of the ostrich are known as colossal birds and are skinned and preserved much as the large quadrupeds by mounting the prepared skin on a manikin, built in the pose of the finished specimen and supported by heavy iron rods.
In mounting eagles or similar birds with wings spread, which seems to be a popular attitude, use the largest wires possible as anything less than that will, on account of their size and wide extent, tend to a drooping, back-boneless appearance entirely out of keeping.
It goes without saying that large birds do not require the delicate handling of small ones, but by way of compensation considerable force is needed.